Topic 1: Smile and Shreshta scheme
Context: The Scheme for Residential Education for Students in High Schools in Targeted Area (SHRESHTA) and Support for Marginalised Individual for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE) are being implemented by Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.
Key details:
- SHRESHTA scheme:
- Under the Scheme for Residential Education for Students in High Schools in Targeted Areas (SHRESHTA) financial assistance is provided to NGOs for running projects related to education of students belonging to Scheduled Castes.
- The Scheme broadly covers 3 types of projects:
- Residential Schools
- Non Residential Schools and
- Hostels, both for Primary and Secondary Students.
- The scheme has been revised in 2022-23 and a new component has been added to the Scheme, under which every year a specified number of meritorious SC students in the country are selected for quality residential education in top-class residential High Schools through a nation-wide entrance test conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA).
- SMILE Scheme:
- The scheme is set to provide welfare and rehabilitation to the Transgender community and the people engaged in the act of begging.
- It provides scholarships for Transgender Students studying in IX till post-graduation.
- It has provisions for Skill Development and Livelihood.
- It provides a comprehensive package in convergence with Jan Aarogya Yojana supporting Gender-Reaffirmation surgeries through selected hospitals.
- The Housing facility in the form of ‘Garima Greh’ ensures food, clothing, recreational facilities, skill development opportunities, recreational activities and medical support etc.
- There is provision of Transgender Protection Cell in each state will monitor cases of offences and to ensure timely registration, investigation and prosecution of offences.
- The National Portal & Helpline will provide necessary information and solutions to the Transgender community and the people engaged in the act of begging when needed.
Topic 2: Specialty Steel
Context: India emerged as world’s second largest crude steel producer since 2018 and second largest consumer of finished steel since 2019.
Key details:
- A Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Specialty Steel was approved by the Government on 22.07.2021, with a financial outlay of ₹ 6,322 crores.
- The PLI scheme aims to extend an incentive of 4% to 6% on incremental sales (over base year) of goods manufactured in India and covered under target segments, to eligible companies, for a period of five years.
- Objective of the PLI Scheme is to promote domestic manufacturing of ‘Specialty Steel’ within the country.
- In 2020-21, India imported 6.7 MT of steel, out of which 4 MT was specialty steel. Through the PLI scheme, India wants to plug this gap in market demand by sourcing domestically and creating products for export.
What is Specialty steel?
- Specialty steels (also referred to as alloy steel) contain additional alloyed materials that deliver special properties to the final product.
- Specialty steels are engineered to provide superior performance under specific conditions.
- Specialty steel is a value-added steel, made by processing normal finished steel through coating, plating and heat treatment.
- Apart from its applications in the automobile sector and specialized capital goods sector, it also holds high usage value in sectors like defense, space, and power.
- Benefits of Specialty Steels
- High corrosion resistance
- Targeted resistance to high and/or low temperature
- Easily fabricated
- Dimensional stability and strength
- Non-magnetic
- Sterile and hygienic
- Well suited for special applications
- Lighter weight
- Grease-free use
- Applications of Specialty Steels
- Food and Beverage
- Specialty steels are used in bearings for food processing equipment because they can be easily cleaned and offer high corrosion resistance while maintaining durability at high and low temperatures.
- Chemical Industry
- It is used in chemical processing due to its ability to resist acids.
- This specialty steel can be used in acidic or alkaline environments.
- Severe Environments
- Due to the high corrosion resistance, superior stability, high strength, and resistance at high and low temperatures, specialty steels are well suited for bearings used in many types of severe environments.
- Food and Beverage
Topic 3: SVAMITVA Scheme
Context: Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj informed the Lok Sabha about implementation of the SWAMITVA Scheme.
Key details:
- It is a Central Sector Scheme.
- Aim:
- To provide the ‘Record of Rights’ to village household owners possessing houses in inhabited areas (Abadi) in villages.
- Under the scheme, land parcels in rural inhabited area of all the villages of the country are surveyed.
- It helps in determination of clear ownership of property.
- The scheme covers multifarious aspects:
- facilitating monetisation of properties and enabling bank loan;
- reducing property related disputes;
- comprehensive village level planning.
- National Informatics Centre is responsible to enhance the Ministry’s Spatial Planning Application ‘Gram Manchitra’.
- Broad Areas of Impact
- Inclusive Society –
- Access to Property Rights with Improvement in socio-economic standards of vulnerable population in villages
- Land Governance –
- SVAMITVA Scheme aims to address the root cause for disputes at local level
- Sustainable Habitats –
- High-resolution digital maps for better Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDP) leading to improvement across infrastructure through efficient allocation of funds and increased accessibility
- Economic Growth –
- It helps people to monetize their property as collateral. It is also a boost to India’s economic growth through streamlining of Property taxes.
Topic 4: Tactical nuclear weapons
Context: The Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he intends to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus
What are tactical nuclear weapons?
- Nuclear weapons can be categorised into two types — strategic and tactical.
- Strategic weapons refer to weapons that have bigger objectives, such as destroying cities or larger targets with larger war-waging objectives in mind.
- Strategic nuclear weapons would likely be used to bring the enemy to its knees entirely with a massive strike like the United States did in World War II when its nuclear weapons forced Japanese surrender.
- Tactical weapons are limited in their scope and the intention behind their usage is limited to arriving at a particular battlefied outcome.
- An example of a tactical nuclear weapon would be its use to stop adversary’s progress in a particular theatre.
- Strategic weapons refer to weapons that have bigger objectives, such as destroying cities or larger targets with larger war-waging objectives in mind.
- Tactical nuclear weapons are called “non-strategic nuclear weapons“.
- Tactical (non-strategic) nuclear weapons (TNWs) typically refer to short-range weapons, including:
- land-based missiles with a range of less than 500 km
- air- and sea-launched weapons with a range of less than 600 km
- Tactical nuclear weapons are intended to destroy enemy troops and weapons on the battlefield.
- They have a relatively short range and a much lower yield than nuclear warheads.
- Unlike strategic weapons, which have been subject to arms control agreements between Moscow and Washington, tactical weapons never have been limited by any such pacts.
- While strategic nuclear weapons are fitted to land- or submarine-based intercontinental ballistic missiles that are constantly ready for launch, tactical nuclear weapons are stored at a few tightly guarded storage facilities and it takes time to deliver them to combat units.
- How can they be used?
- Tactical nuclear warheads can be placed on various types of missiles which are normally used to deliver conventional explosives, such as cruise missiles and artillery shells.
- They can also be fired from aircraft and ships as anti-ship missiles, torpedoes and depth charges.
Topic 5: Muslim personal law on inheritance
Context: A Muslim couple from Kerala recently decided to get their marriage registered under the Special Marriage Act (SMA) so that principles of the secular Act could apply to matters of inheritance in his family.
What does Islamic law say?
- The Koran clearly outlines the principles of inheritance for both direct and indirect heirs.
- A daughter gets half the share of the son.
- So if a son inherits a plot of 100 metres from the father, the daughter gets a plot of 50 metres or half the value of the 100-metre plot.
- If the husband predeceases his wife, she gets a one-eighth share of his property, if the couple has children.
- Otherwise, she gets one-fourth.
- There is also a share for paternal uncles, aunts, etc, as long as they are blood relatives.
- Same for grandparents if they are alive.
- Each parent gets one-sixth if the son passes away before them, and leaves children behind.
The problem:
- The problem, as in the case of the Kerala couple arises, when a couple has only a daughter or daughters.
- The daughters can inherit only two-thirds of father’s property.
- Beyond that, the shares are for the mother and for paternal blood relatives.
Various options
- Vasiyat Option:
- The first option is to make a will or vasiyat under which a person can declare that upon his death, a particular heir shall inherit not more than one-third of the property.
- Virasat option:
- Under virasat or inheritance, there is the option of hiba which allows unrestricted transfer of wealth or property to a person during the lifetime of the donor.
- This is like a gift deed.
| The Special Marriage ActThe Special Marriage Act of 1954 (SMA) was passed by the Parliament on October 9, 1954.It governs a civil marriage where the state sanctions the marriage rather than the religion.The SMA enables marriage between inter-faith or inter-caste couples without them giving up their religious identity or resorting to conversion.Issues of personal law such as marriage, divorce, adoption are governed by religious laws that are codified.These laws, such as the Muslim Marriage Act, 1954, and the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, require either spouse to convert to the religion of the other before marriage.Eligibility:The applicability of the Act extends to the people of all faiths, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists, across India.Age:The minimum age to get married under the SMA is 21 years for males and 18 years for females.Effect on rights:Once married as per the SMA, any member of an undivided family who professes the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain religion shall be deemed to effect their severance from the family.This would affect rights, including the right to inheritance, of the persons choosing to marry under the SMA.Procedure for a civil marriage:The parties to the marriage are required to give a notice to a “Marriage Officer” of the district in which at least one of the parties has resided for at least 30 days immediately preceding the notice.Before the marriage is solemnized, the parties and three witnesses are required to sign a declaration form before the Marriage Officer.Once the declaration is accepted, the parties will be given a “Certificate of marriage” which is essentially proof of the marriage.Objections:The clause of Objection to marriage allows any person before the expiration of thirty days from the date of the notice’s publication to object to the marriage.If an objection has been made, the Marriage Officer cannot solemnize the marriage until he has inquired into the matter of the objection and is satisfied that will not prevent the marriage from taking place, unless the person making such an objection withdraws it.Recent Court rulings:In January 2021, the Allahabad High Court ruled that couples seeking to solemnize their marriage under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 can choose not to publish the mandatory 30-day notice of their intention to marry. |
Topic 6: Generating power from gold mines
Context: Australian technology may help generate power from defunct gold mines in Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka.
Key details:
- Need for such technology:
- A drawback that makes renewable energy unreliable, from solar or wind power, is that there is no power during nights or windless days.
- The idea is to address this challenge by relying on low-tech gravity.
- How power will be generated?
- Their plan is to find defunct mines, which often go hundreds or even thousands of metres deep, and haul a ‘weighted block’ up to the top of the mine shaft using renewable power during the day when such power is available.
- This block could be as much as 40 tonnes.
- When backup power is required, the heavy block will fall under gravity, and the ensuing momentum will power a generator via a connected shaft.
- The depth to which the block can slip can be determined via a braking system, thus giving control on the amount of power that can be produced.
- The same principle underlies the ‘pumped hydropower’ storage.
- Their plan is to find defunct mines, which often go hundreds or even thousands of metres deep, and haul a ‘weighted block’ up to the top of the mine shaft using renewable power during the day when such power is available.
- Benefits:
- Using weighted blocks means that decommissioned mines can be put to use.
- The environmental costs and challenges of moving water up can be avoided.
- By using gravity as the fuel consuming critical water, land, and chemicals is dispensed off which other storage technologies rely on.
